Among the many changes, the new rules would require batteries in consumer devices like smartphones to be easily removable and replaceable. That's far from the case today...
Or a BrexitAteMyPolitcalCareer and it's just all the Conservative politicians who've had to quit or been pushed put of the party over the last few years.
The good thing about european union rules is that there's a big enough market that they want to follow their rules, but not big enough that they can make a separate production chain for everything, so it's easier to follow the rules globally. Like iphones and usb c, just using usb c everywhere is easier.
I mean, I like replaceable batteries and I try to repair everything I can that I own so that it lasts longer (I even replaced the battery in my wireless earbuds' case, doubling its lifetime so far), but swappable batteries have major downsides. Waterproofing is one, but a major thing is space. Sealed batteries don't need protection, but replaceable batteries do, and that increases their size by a lot. The last phones I've had probably couldn't even fit a replaceable battery inside of them how slim they are. So you either have to make phones much larger, or you have to reduce battery capacity. You also probably couldn't have metal backs and would have to return to plastic ones.
Some of these problems could be fixed but it'd make phones cost even more.
I don't know the answer to this, we should make phones more easily repairable, but I don't feel like this is the right way. Maybe mandating that phones can be repaired more easily by repair technicians and make the batteries more easily available. But I don't know how you could enforce that.
Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's gonna be easier to achieve than I believe, but I don't see how it's going to be possible without major downsides.
I agree, there are some things which are different for stupid reasons (looking at you lighting port), but others actually make sense. I think forcing companies to provide official support for technicians, and to not block third party spare parts would be good enough. Allow my local technician to use a random chinese battery after the official ones stop being produced, or keep producing batteries for at least 10 years after a phone's release.
Even better, they could standardize batteries and battery sizes, needing to swap out the battery might mean a lot of downsides, but having a set of standard batteries that you build your phone around might not be that bad.
I have a "sealed" phone (gotta use a heatgun to melt glue off to remove the back) and the battery is easily replaceable once it's opened. maybe what you're saying is true for some battery designs, but not for mine (or my last non-replaceable-battery one before that).
A phone with a back that's glued on isn't user repairable by normal standards. User repairable means easy and that anybody can do it, using a heat gun to melt glue is too much to expect from an average Joe. I'd say soldering is easier in some cases and that isn't considered user repairable.
If you had an easily removable back cover then you would have to have a protected battery, else it would be a major safety issue.
But I do agree with you, something like that would be optimal, where you don't need 500 steps just to remove the battery. Having the battery easily removable so that any regular technician can replace it for cheap should be the goal.
Heck yeah! I'm planning on getting a framework laptop when I next need an upgrade and if I get any input on the decision I'll be pushing for the corporate company I work at to adopt them. I'm admittedly not sure I'm ready to jump on the fairphone train yet but I'm open to the idea.
My framework was one of the best buying decisions I made. Mine came with a fan that made weird sounds so they just sent me the replacement part and I fixed it in 10 minutes. No more sending in the whole device and waiting for weeks on end.
While framekworks have virtually no drawback for me, I'm not as happy with my sustainable smartphone. I have a Shift phone (small company from Germany) that is fully user repairable. Unfortunately, the specs are only middle class, especially the camera, and the software updates are sparingly. Aside from the software updates I heard similar things from friends with Fairphones.
Yeah, right now I've got a s23 ultra and I really like it. There is too much of an advantage to the mainstream phones in camera and extra features for me to make that jump yet. I had a OnePlus with lineage before but I can't pretend I haven't enjoyed the Samsung so far. As for my Lenovo X1 Carbon I'd replace it in a second, it's still doing pretty well right now but it's absolutely not repairable and starting to show its age a bit. I've also just been lucky to not need to repair anything.
A year ago I would have been absolutely for this. I mean I still had a smartphone with swappable battery (LG G4) 2015-2019 and only changed away from it because of the bootloop issues this phone had.
Though last year i switched to the Zenphone 9 and this phone has a phenomenal battery time in my eyes.
I only slow charge it to 80% every 2 days and I could use the phone for more than 48h if i wanted. Fully charged i can use it for 3 days. I don't think i will see battery issues for a long time.
I could see that some future phone designs and technologies (like bendable phones) would have it difficult to include swappable batteries. I wonder if those could still use fixed batteries if they offer a free replacement each year or sth like that, instead.
The USB-C changes are good for sure though
For most phones I used the batteries were ok for ~2 years, but i still kept using them for 1-2 more years.
But longer usage times of the batteries also means that they need less charge cycles also not fully charging and slow charging will also maintain the battery life better. In total my phone should have half the amount of charge cycles in a year compared to my previous phones.
I do believe that this time my phone battery will probably hold out over the complete device lifetime for once.
Oh no you are one of them people. Slow charging isn’t going to preserve your battery health by any substantial amount.
Fast charging isn’t going to kill your battery by any substantial amount.
Just use your phone and stop being worried about useless crap like that.
maybe, don't really care though since i charge it overnight. So might aswell charge it slow. So yeah i am doing what you say and not caring about useless crap like that :)